First off, let’s hear it for the Judge. The fact that Eleanor, Chidi, Jason, and Tahani were going to throw themselves on the mercy of this weirdo universe’s all-seeing arbiter of Good and Bad Place placement set off a flurry of dream casting guessing games. And while the suggestions on my Twitter feed (Amy Poehler…

“What’s My Motivation” is The Good Place in a rush. It’s tempting to call this episode a table-setter, as Eleanor, Jason, and Janet all seek an abrupt escape at the end of the episode, while Michael, Tahani, Chidi, and Real Eleanor are scrambling to help them. Sure, Michael’s help involves rebooting Janet in order to…

The Good Place left us (all the way back in November!) with a number of cliffhangers to worry about. There’s the coming of the dreaded Sean (or Shawn, Shaun, Siân—we don’t know), the arbiter of all disputes between the Good and Bad Places, who will determine Eleanor’s ultimate fate, and has Ted Danson’s Michael in a…

As bright and funny a center as Kristen Bell’s Eleanor (known hereafter as Fake Eleanor) has been to The Good Place, at times she has functioned more as foil for the good place’s sunny perfection. That’s the initial impression The Good Place gave, that Eleanor would function sort of like Rodney Dangerfield at the…